Creation Care

Creation Care

Creation care is the responsible stewardship by humankind of the earth and its life forms, for the Lord’s sake. We believe that the church has a responsibility to care for creation as an expression of his kingdom.

Why?

The world is experiencing increasingly severe storms, floods and droughts and we are seeing widespread degradation of the oceans, rivers, soils, forests and atmosphere.

Most of the people groups of East Asia have been affected by these phenomena. They have led to food and water shortages, destruction of homes and means of livelihood, involuntary migration, disease and death.

With growing population pressures many people have no choice but to live in marginal lands that are particularly vulnerable to these impacts, and to natural disasters such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

We are also seeing large-scale loss of biodiversity in land and marine eco-systems. Furthermore, the earth’s resources are being consumed at unsustainable levels.

The earth is the Lord’s

and everything in it.

Blessed is he who has

regard for the weak.

Psalm 41:1

Ministries

Creation care is an integral part of the work being done to achieve OMF’s vision and mission. In fact CIM/OMF has been engaged in various forms of integral mission since the 1870s. Given the biblical mandate to care for creation, and in response to the growing ecological challenges in East Asia and beyond, OMF has made a commitment to creation care.

These environmental ministries also give us opportunities to share the good news of Jesus Christ in all its fullness with East Asia’s peoples to the glory of God.

Stories

Solar panels and hair salons

Paul & Abbie Brooks with their baby daughter have been living in the small coastal town of Linbian since Oct 18. By God’s grace they are seeking to church plant in this area. They have made good relationships with people nearby to their apartment complex. The ‘hair salon sisters’ downstairs introduced them to a pastor […]

Mission Round Table—Vol. 9 No. 1 May 2014

Missional Creation Care This edition of the Mission Round Table is offered as a contribution to the exploration of the place of creation care in mission. It interleaves missiological reflections with accounts of creation care ministry from different contexts in Asia and Africa. It includes OMF’s statement on the theological basis for creation care, which [...]

OMF International’s Theological Basis for Creation Care

Mission Round Table Vol. 9 No. 1 INTRODUCTION This statement explores God’s purposes and concern for his creation. It does not attempt to address every question that can be raised, but rather seeks to foster caring for creation as part of what it means to live as obedient disciples of Christ. Since God is the [...]

Church Planting and Creation Care among the Mangyan in Mindoro, Philippines

Mission Round Table Vol. 9 no. 1 (May 2014) Jocelyn Dino Jocelyn has worked as a journalist in the Philippines. In 2006 she joined OMF as a missionary doing community development among the Mangyan tribes of Mindoro. She is currently working on her community development graduate diploma at the Alliance Graduate School, Philippines. Nicko Liwadi [...]

Gospel, Land, Community: Creation Care in the Mission of God

Mission Round Table Vol. 9 no. 1 By Mike Griffiths Mike has worked in Asia for over a decade in community development work. KEY TEXTS: RUTH, 1 KINGS 21:1–29 Ordinarily, I would write a paper like this surrounded by as many reference books as possible, trying to bring harmony to different perspectives in the light [...]

Alternative Technology and Mission

. Mission Round Table Vol. 9 no. 1 Joel Chaney and Gareth Selby Joel is a director of CREATIVenergie and works as a researcher for Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh. He has a PhD in biomass energy and has been involved with energy-based consultancy projects in the UK and abroad. Joel is engaged to Esther. [...]

Can We Serve the Earth Without Worshipping it? Mission, Missions, and Monkeys in South Asia

Mission Round Table Vol. 9 no. 1 Lowell Bliss Lowell is the director of Eden Vigil, and the author of Environmental Missions: Planting Churches and Trees. He and his wife Robynn were church-planting missionaries with Christar in India and Pakistan for fourteen years Our Swiss teammate Marie walked into our weekly meeting with a troubled [...]

From Creation to New Creation: Missions and the Natural World

Mission Round Table Vol. 9 no. 1 (May 2014) Walter McConnell Walter is the International Coordinator for Mission Research with OMF International. An American, he has previously served in Taiwan as a church planter and theological educator, taught Old Testament at Singapore Bible College where he also directed the Ichthus Centre for Biblical and Theological [...]

Creation, Gospel and Mission

Mission Round Table Vol. 9 no. 1 (May 2014) Chris Wright Chris is from Northern Ireland, taught in India and at All Nations Christian College, UK, and then followed John Stott as International Ministries Director of Langham Partnership. His books include The Mission of God and The Mission of God’s People. An evangelical mission organization [...]

Creation care in the mission of CIM and OMF: People and Places

By David Gould David is OMF’s Creation Care Advocate; he is tasked with exploring the growing ecological challenges, their impacts on the peoples of East Asia, and appropriate missional responses from OMF. He worked as an architect in the UK before he and his wife Ruth joined OMF in 2002. In OMF we define creation [...]

Teaching Young People to Care for Creation

Much like the hard work required to bring vitality to dry, nutrient-lacking soil, it has taken many years of dedicated teaching and patient labouring to now see fruit among the graduates of the Mangyan Agricultural School (known as Pantribong Sanayan sa Pang-agrikultura or PSP in Tagalog) in Bayanan, Baco, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines. For 25 years, [...]

Creation Care and Urban Mission

Fuel for Faith? Akhai* had seen his three brothers die as a result of alcohol addiction, and he was afraid that the same thing would happen to him. One day his girlfriend Ulzi* persuaded him to go to church with her. He went to please her, but it changed his life – there he heard [...]

Loving our Neighbors through Creation Care

Filipinos Love Me, Their Neighbor Uncle Asyo developed an amazing little farm in the city center. It included scores of fruit trees and herbs. He also raised chickens, ducks, and pigs, partly to produce natural fertilizer. Uncle Asyo knew much about herbal medicine. When I started to feel sick, I grabbed a bandana and went [...]

Students and the environment

When you think about China and the environment you probably think of pollution, smog-filled cities, and urbanites wearing masks. But there are so many other, more visible, forms of pollution. When I arrived in China ten years ago, many large supermarkets were charging for plastic bags long before my local supermarket back home. Today there [...]

Green and Blue Bags

One afternoon, there was a knock at the door of my apartment building. One of the guards from downstairs was outside, a blue and a green plastic bag and a sheet of paper in his hands. A little puzzled, I wondered what on earth this was all about. Despite my limited language, he managed to [...]

Natural Disasters

Recently ranked third in the world for an increasing occurrence of natural disasters, Myanmar is listed as one of the countries most at risk from the effects of climate change in the next few decades. In recent years, widespread flooding has almost become an annual event. Despite improving government efforts, the economic and social impacts [...]

Thoughts from a Creation Care Advocate visiting the Philippines

In Davao I caught up with an OMF colleague, just back from leading a team taking a 20 tonne container lorry to one of the areas devastated by Typhoon Yolanda. They expected to help build temporary shelters, but the people welcoming them said they wanted to build permanent homes themselves. So the team were happy [...]

Seaweed Farming & Discipleship!

Caring for God’s Creation

Vietnam is the Lord’s and everything in it (Ps 24:1), from its human and animal inhabitants to its vegetation, both natural and cultivated (rice, coffee, fruit). Its land, from sea-level deltas to mountainous highlands, its natural resources (minerals, gas, oil and timber) and its water and air ... All belong to the LORD! The nation [...]